The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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sculptor, there exists an image within every rock. The
creative act of realization merely frees it.'
25. Durga is another manifestation of Devi or
Parvati, the sakti or wife of Siva. Like Siva himself,
'The Devi is the Absolute in action, manifestation,
and variety; Nature in all her multiplicity, violence,
and charm, dispersing impartially birth and death,
illusion and enlightenment.' (A. K. Coomaraswamy,
Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin (Boston, April 1927),
23-4-)
306. 26. As noted above (p. 277), there is evidence that
the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal was a 'copy' of
this temple at Kancipuram.
307. 27. It should be stated that the Kailasa temple is
only the most grandiose and impressive of a whole
series of rock-cut temples and cave sanctuaries,
Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain, that were carved at
Ellura over a period of many centuries. The reader
is referred to Percy Brown's Indian Architecture-
(Buddhist and Hindu), 86 ff.
310. 28. Kramrisch, Indian Sculpture, 88.
314. 29. Zimmer, 199.
317. 30. See below, p. 330.
319. 31. R. Sewell, The Story of a Forgotten Empire
(London, 1904), 240-1. Presumably for Domingo
Paes, the word 'Romanesque' meant work he had seen
in Rome . . . either Baroque or Antique . . . and not
the modern use of the term to designate the art of the
pre-Gothic period in western Europe.
32. Percy Brown, 113.
CHAPTER 18
327. 1. These holy men recommended a personal faith
based on devotion, rather than on ritual and formula,
a doctrine that lent an air of catholicity to the Saivite
faith, and invited to its creed all classes of persons
without distinction of caste.
2. A wax model was prepared and over this was
fashioned a clay mould. When this mould had
hardened, the wax was melted out and the amalgam
poured into the clay mould. When the metal had
cooled, the mould was broken and the image was
given its final chasing and burnishing.
330. 3. Winifred Lamb, Greek and Roman Bronzes
(London, 1929), plate lxxvii(a).
4. The legend or story of the Dance of Siva has little
to do with the metaphysical meaning of these images.
The tale relates to Siva's dispute with a group of
heretical rishis who endeavoured to destroy the Lord
by their incantations and magical devices. They first
loosed against him a tiger which he caught and flayed
with the nail of his little finger. A monstrous serpent
of their production was placed around his throat as a
garland. A final monstrosity in the form of a dwarf
rushed upon the god as he began the measure of his
dance. This emblem of evil Siva crushed beneath his
foot and proceeded with his dance, the performance of
which converted the heretics.
5. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Bronzes from Ceylon,
Chiefly in the Colombo Museum (Colombo, 1914), 10.
6. The attributes of the Nataraja include the drum in
the upper right hand, which in its vibration symbolizes
the god's creative activity. The fire on the left hand
both destroys and cleanses the impurity of the soul.
The lower right hand is in the gesture of reassurance,
and the lower left points to the god's foot as the place
of refuge and salvation for the worshipper. The dwarf
Illusion and the sense of the Ego which the devotee
is
must overcome. The flaming halo represents the
informing energy in all matter.
333. 7. C. Sivaramamurti, South Indian Bronzes (New
Delhi, 1963), 114.
8..H. Zimmer, The Art ofIndian Asia, 11 (New York,
i960), plate 241.
334. 9. M. R. Anand, Kama Kala (Geneva, 1958);
J. Auboyer and E. Zannas, Khajurdho ('S-Gravenhage,
i960).
335. 10. R. Pfister, Les toiles imprimees de Fostat et
!Hindoustan (Paris, 1938).
11. A. K. Coomaraswamy, History, figure 185.
12. Pfister, plate ia, and our illustration 275.
336. 13. John Irwin, 'The Commercial Embroidery of
Gujarat in the Seventeenth Century', jf.I.S.O.A.,
xvii, 1949, 51 ff.
14. John Irwin, 'Golconda Cotton Paintings of the
Early Seventeenth Century', Lalit Kala, 5 April 1959,
plate xx. Our illustration 269 is an Andhra textile
from the Kalahasti region.
15. See the earlier hardback editions of this work,
plate 134A.
CHAPTER 19
342. i. The Ellura frescoes are in many ways so
different from the cycles at Ajanta and Bagh that they
may be the earliest known specimens of what Taranatha
described as the 'Western school'. See above,
p. 480, n. 1.
2. Karl Khandalavale, Indian Sculpture and Painting
(Bombay, n.d.), plate viii.
343. 3. Douglas Barrett and Basil Gray. Painting of
India (Geneva, 1936), 42.
4. See A. Foucher, Etude sur Ficonographie bouddhique
de Ilnde (Paris, 1900).
344. 5. The essential qualities of Mogul and Rajput
painting are well summarized by J. V. S. Wilkinson
in Indian Art, ed. Winstedt, 140-1.
6. A. K. Coomaraswamy, Rajput Painting (Oxford,
1916), 4.